Foreign Dissidents

Wendy is here. She held position outside Fort Falling for three days before we let her lash to the station. She has requested an audience with our 'Head of State.' We've been trying to decide if this means the OSA has acknowledged our independence, or if they just want their troopships back.

I tried to convince Eddie that Curious would make a good Head of State until Doc tells us who is in charge, but he managed to veto the idea before he started laughing too hard. We have leadership--Eddie being a prime example--but we've been doing everything by mutual agreement. I'm not sure we actually have an official government. I didn't consider it at all strange until new citizens started to ask questions.

Six of those new citizens are from Titan station. They were rescued by Counter-Spin a few weeks ago, and spent some time in med-vats recovering from low-gee attrition. Apparently they are Wendy's sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces--plus another mated couple who are friends of the family. I've never seen a family which liked to argue so much.

Wendy actually threatened to have Ben arrested for endangering the children. No one bothered to point out we didn't have time to waste on such business if Sarah and the girls were on Ben's side. They just kept arguing. This argument in no way stopped Wendy and Sarah from ganging up on Ben for other reasons.

Ben put up with complaints he couldn't fix for about ten minutes, then, to my surprise, he said softly, "Be silent. All of you."

I was even more surprised when all four powered down instantly.

"Wendy," he said. "We will not be leaving Fort Falling. The girls have made new friends, and Sarah and I can do real work here. We've already applied for biotech implants."

"Biotech?" Wendy asked. "Implant? Are you crazy?" Then she looked at me and asked, "Is everyone here insane? Those things are eating your brains."

"Yes."

When I didn't say anything else--because unlike the sane people, I'm not fond of argument--she turned back to Ben and declared, "I will not let you get away with this. I won't let you infect my nieces with those things."

That's about when one niece joined the argument while the other one started to cry hysterically. I didn't hang around to see how it turned out, but I suspect it will be a couple of days before Wendy remembers she is here to speak with someone in charge.